Medieval Style Wooden Sword – Woodworking

I recently tried my hand at making a Medieval style wooden sword. This is not something that I have ever attempted before, but I read a few articles that made me think “I could do that!” I decided to give it a go. Since this was my first sword, my intent was to make it for decorative purposes and not for actual fighting. I did some research on what the best strategy would be, and came up with a game plan. One of the number one things that I learned during my research is when you are creating a sword for fighting; you want to make the sword out of one piece of wood to minimize the weak points. Since this one is for decoration, I made the sword in three pieces.

I made the grip first by placing a block of wood on the wood lathe and turning it till I got the desired size handle. I etched notches into it to give it a more decorative look. I decided that I wanted to have the cross guard come all the way around the grip to create a hand guard, again to give it a more decorative look. Then came the blade, I imagined that this would be the easiest part of the whole process. It really wasn’t! The original blade was much larger and it took me awhile to get the blade down to the shape that I wanted. Once it was all completed, I carved a design into the blade with a dremel tool. I did not have any plans for this sword; it is all just what I came up with in my head. Now that I have learned from some of my mistakes on the first sword, I am anxious to make more.

I also want to eventually make a sword that can be used for fighting. I want it to be rugged and strong enough to hold up to some abuse. Yet still look appealing. This has been added to my list of future projects.

Nice work. As you mentioned, having the blade made of a single piece, with the tang running all the way through the hilt is the only way to go. This the method I used when making these swords and they feel great to swing around. But I wouldn’t trust them to hold up in sparring like an actual waster, which are constructed far more robustly, and usually from tough wood like hickory.